The role of rapid prototyping to support concurrent engineering in South Africa

Abstract:

The South African Manufacturing Industry has a long and proud history of ingenious product design and development - especially in the mining, military and agricultural industries. However, due to isolation from the international community, which also isolated the industry from new technologies like CAD, CAM and other automated fabrication methods, product development relied for quite some time on conventional model making methods.<br><br> With global opportunities opening up to the country, the reality of global competition also showed that in order to compete in the international economy, increased migration to and adoption of new product-development tools such as CAD, CAM, Rapid Prototyping and Tooling and Virtual Prototyping was necessary.<br><br> The traditional approach to customer service, the definition of products, markets and value, would have to be revolutionised, as consumers of manufactured goods now demand product reliability, conformance quality, after-sales service, product flexibility, on time delivery, etc. With this came the need to apply all of these technologies in an integrated, well-organised approach. The traditional sequential way of developing products, as well as lack of communication in product development teams, all contributed to an inefficient product development industry.<br><br> Acquiring technology is one thing - however, industry also needs to understand, trust and believe in any new technology to really change its set paradigms of working. With the advent of this research project, only two RP technologies were available in the country, with CAD usage being limited to some larger companies. As the international industrial community had proven that the entrepreneurial spirit that drives the economy is that of the small and medium sized companies, a huge task lay ahead to not only prove, but also to implement these technologies in the total SMME spectrum. This could only be achieved if the industry's scepticism towards these enabling technologies could be proven wrong.<br><br> Accuracy studies (as described in Chapter 7) were done because the local industry did not believe in the technology. This however proved to be a small part of the real issue, since it was soon realised that an integrated approach was needed to get the technology accepted in industry. This led to the development of a Concurrent Engineering model where Rapid Prototyping was put in context with Concurrent Engineering, based on the theory as described in Chapters 1 to 6.<br><br> The model was applied, tested and proved through a series of applicable case studies for the South African Industry, as described in Chapters 7 and 8. The case studies, which summarise the results, and achievements of the research were widely published in peer-reviewed journals, conference proceedings, and technical journals and used for presentations during industrial seminars. It also formed the basis of technology transfer and diffusion to industry, and also helped to identify the technologies needed to develop proven process chains, methods of delivery and support. Some of the more important published case studies are attached in Appendix A. A full list of publications that emanated from the research can be found in Appendix B. The model as researched was also successfully applied in consultation with a major South African manufacturing company.<br><br> The initial research soon showed that apart from the limited technologies available in the country, various other strategic technologies were needed to complete the picture. The research project covers a broad spectrum of Rapid Prototyping technologies applied in Accelerated Product Development, the management of the technologies in a Concurrent Engineering approach, and its transfer to the industry. Its place in the product development network was proven and accepted by industry, which now uses the technology on a daily basis.<br><br> The project led to the establishment of a Centre for Rapid Prototyping and Manufacturing at the Technikon Free State which now supports the total spectrum of Manufacturing SMMEs on a national basis. It also served as the cornerstone for a total research focus area leading to incubation of skills-driven companies and commercial research and development - all the necessary ingredients for innovative enterprise development.